Besides being one of Metallica's founding members and main
songwriters, drummer Lars Ulrich is also the band's spokesman.
Born on December 26, 1963, in Gentofte, Denmark, Ulrich's father
(Torbin Ulrich) was a nationally renowned tennis player, and it
appeared as though Lars would follow in his father's footsteps,
as the young Ulrich practiced hard on tennis skills. In 1973,
his father took Lars to his first rock concert, to see the
mighty Deep Purple in Copenhagen, which opened the youngster's
eyes to hard rock and heavy metal. After he decided that the
tennis life wasn't for him after all, Ulrich shifted his focus
on music (namely the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement:
Iron Maiden, Saxon, Diamond Head, Motorhead, Def Leppard, etc.),
and took up the drums. His family relocated to California in the
early '80s, as Lars promptly put an ad in the local music paper
looking for other similarly minded musicians looking to start up
a band (even though the NWOBHM had yet to make an impression
stateside). One of the first replies he received was from
guitarist James Hetfield, as the pair agreed that they should
form a band that was a reaction against the glam metal that had
infiltrated Los Angeles at the time. Soon after, Metallica was
officially born.

Several other bandmembers came and went, until a lineup
consisting of bassist Cliff Burton, lead guitarist Dave Mustaine,
plus Ulrich and Hetfield (the latter also doubling on vocals by
this time) moved to San Francisco, building up a solid fan base
due to their shows and a heavily circulated demo tape, No Life 'Til
Leather. Metallica was offered a record contract with the
independent label Megaforce if they agreed to move to New York,
which they did, replacing Mustaine with Kirk Hammett in the
process. Over the course of three releases, 1983's Kill 'Em All,
1984's Ride the Lightning (which was the group's first to be
issued by a major label, Elektra), and 1986's Master of Puppets,
Metallica became one of heavy metal's most promising new bands,
until Burton's tragic death nearly derailed the group. With
massive success just around the corner, the remaining members
decided to carry on with replacement member Jason Newsted,
resulting in such blockbuster releases as 1988's And Justice for
All and 1991's self-titled release, which established the group
as one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. The '90s saw
more sold-out stadium tours and further hit albums (1996's Load,
1997's Reload, etc.), before Newsted exited the band in early
2001.

Between Metallica tours throughout the '90s, Ulrich kept
himself busy forming his own record label, Music Company (via
Elektra/Asylum) and jet setting with other rock stars as well as
movie actors. In the late '90s, Ulrich received criticism from
rock fans when he publicly spoke out against the mp3 file
sharing internet server Napster, attempting to lend a hand in
closing down the server by prohibiting Napster from including
any Metallica songs — going as far as giving a list of
Metallica fans who had downloaded songs of the group (which
resulted in the ban of nearly 300,000 users from the
service). By Greg Prato.